Thursday, May 28, 2015

Sam Rook lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Her passion for fantasy novels began in high school with her desire to write following shortly thereafter. Software engineer by day, fantasy author by night, she strives to give her readers a chance to enjoy worlds that transport them away from the stress of everyday life.

Enjoy an excerpt from HOPE and find a Giveaway entry at the end of the post!

The winged
knights—magically altered humans—are the only ones defending the portal from
Av'lor to Earth. With defeat imminent, they find an unlikely source of hope in
software engineer, Kathryn.

Kathryn doubts her life could get
any worse after the death of her mother and daughter. She realizes her mistake
after she arrives on Av'lor with only part of her house and hungry creatures
looking for their next meal. Once the knights bring her under their protection,
she discovers their angry commander is far from welcoming.

Sir Lanclor, Commander of the
Knighthood, lives with the curse of betrayal. While the treachery occurred
lifetimes before, few see past his guarded shell to the grim man beneath.
Barely holding the Knighthood together, his grip tightens when Kathryn joins
their ranks. Her stubbornness and surprising strength not only energizes the
knights, but also makes Sir Lanclor question his self-imposed isolation.

With the approach of an invading
army, Kathryn and Sir Lanclor must find a way to end centuries of war and save
two worlds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt

"That
reminds me. The Ball of Remembrance is coming up in a few weeks. We should go
together."

"A
ball? You mean with dancing and stuff?" Kathryn remembered some of the
best times in her life on a dance floor.

"Yes.
Don’t sound so surprised. In the middle of a war, this is one of the few times
we can relieve stress. You have to go. There’ll be dancing, singing, drinking
and a ton of food. Everyone tends to relax their guard a little, maybe get a
little…friendly, if you know what I mean?" Elena’s smile was infectious.

"Wait.
They’re not going to be having sex on the dance floor, are they?"

"Kate,
men of Av’lor aren’t like that. They’ll at least take us someplace
private." Elena’s laugh made Kathryn smile and eventually join in.

"I
think it would be a little awkward. I don’t know what any of the other knights
look like beneath their armor. What if I hooked up with someone I work with
every day? That would make things a little strained during drill the next
day." An officer would be even more awkward. Sir Garrent or Sir Lanclor.
Even worse, what if it was Jakara? Knife training would have a whole new
meaning.

"Oh,
rank is suspended for the one day and it’s pretty anonymous. Everyone’s wings
will be the same color. License to party." Elena laughed and started
thrusting her hips towards the bathtub with a sponge in one hand and a bottle
of cleaner in the other.

Monday, March 9, 2015

If you'd begun writing you'll soon realize that your mind will wander in a million directions. If you haven't given yourself permission to write you're going to be thinking of the dishes in the sink and the clothes in the washer. Make sure your writing time is important to you and that will help motivate you.

Another key factor in writing is reading. Yep! You need to read to write. Now, I say this from experience. While writing my first book when I was much, much younger, I stopped reading. My purpose was because I didn't want to accidentally steal anything. But the truth is reading other writers only encouraged my creativity. Think about it...when you were younger and you danced until your heart was content you'd follow along at some point, right. It didn't make your dance any less yours. There are only so many story lines and so many words. It's how you string them together.

Think about how music moves you to work out, or dance, or sing at the top of your lungs. That creative spark sparks another. Reading is much the same.

A less popular method of keeping motivated (this is usually by newer writers) is share your work. Find someone who is so enthusiastic about reading what you've wrote and share it with them. Their enthusiasm will spark yours. I'm not talking a critique partner either. I'm talking someone who just loves what you do. It might take some guts to find that person, but I tell you it's worth it.

Again, journal everyday. I'm not saying you need to even journal your trip to the store. However, there is something in everyday. Look up writing prompts on Google. There are tons of them and they will spark your creativity a little bit. We can all use that.

Create a blog. Everyone is an expert in something. Yes, even you can write a blog about something. Heck, Sienfield had an entire show about nothing--and that was the tag line! Create a blog calendar and search how to create blog content. It may not be a book, but it is keeping you writing.

The best way to keep motivated is to have a goal. Do you want to publish in magazines or write books? Are you going to submit to a big house, small house, or self-publish? If you're working with publishing houses you're going to be under contract to do certain things with your writing. A contract certainly motivates you!

Motivating yourself to write will NEVER come easily. After 22 books published I still have to convince myself that I have to sit and write and not just mess around with it. Those dishes aren't going anywhere. They'll be there when I'm done. Writing is important to me. Luckily it pays my bills. So that is one motivating factor. The other is that I crave it and love it. Be true to yourself. That might be all the motivation you need.

Author Bernadette Marie is known for building families readers want to be part of. Her series The Keller Family has graced bestseller charts since its release in 2011, along with her other series and single title books. The married mother of five sons promises Happily Ever After always…and says she can write it, because she lives it. When not writing, Bernadette Marie is shuffling her sons to their many events—mostly hockey—and enjoying the beautiful views of the Colorado Rocky Mountains from her front step. She is also an accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do.A chronic entrepreneur, Bernadette Marie opened her own publishing house in 2011, 5 Prince Publishing, so that she could publish the books she liked to write and help make the dreams of other aspiring authors come true too.

Monday, March 2, 2015

What
do rodeos, otherworldly encounters, exotic dancers, bondage, hot sex, refound
love, and time travel have in common? Besides romantic, edge of your seat fun
and intrigue, they all evolve from a single text. Seven multi-genre novellas
that promise to heat your nights and warm your hearts.

Her
Cowboy Dom

Bliss

Tate
Hardy’s best friend leaves him all his cattle if he spends thirty days on a
ranch with a woman he wants but can't have. Jess is a nice girl, and Tate
doesn't do nice. Jessica Campbell needs her brother’s cattle as collateral for
a loan. To get rid of the sexy bull rider, she suggests he teach her about D/s.
When he agrees, Jess gets more than she bargained for from her cowboy Dom.

Midnight
Road

Lorelei
Buckley

Drew
Mathews cherishes her deceased husband’s lingering spirit. When his best
friend, Dominic, reveals her late spouse’s dark secrets, Drew's crushed. She
turns to Dominic and neighbors for support and stumbles into a passionate love
affair and a slew of bizarre commonalities restricted to the residents of
Midnight Road. As mysteries unfold, inalterable conditions threaten her
romantic relationship, her life, and possibly, the world.

A
Lethal Affair

Debra
Jupe

With
a rumored serial killer targeting exotic dancers, Daisy Piper is more than a
little worried when her co-worker goes missing. Her concern escalates when a
guy she’s never met shows up claiming her friend stole his laptop. A
mild-mannered computer whiz on the surface, Miles Garton is a total contrast
from the streetwise Daisy. But he’s on a mission of his own, making the jaded
stripper suspicious. Fighting each other, a mutual attraction, and the truth, they
team up to find the missing woman.

Sexting
Texas

Darah
Lace

Texas
Tallulah Taylor never thought she’d be turned on by a dirty text from a
stranger, one that leads to a delicious sexting session with her best friend.
Will Sanderson never thought the love of his life would see him as anything but
a friend. Maybe sexting Texas will show her this cowboy aims to give her the
ride of her life…for the rest of her life.

The
Dom Delivers

Nese
Lane

He’s
a Dominant, and she’s as vanilla as they come…

Designer
Jenna Jaynes enjoys the safe bubble of her creative world, until her delivery
guy bursts through and steals her heart. CFO Aden Kelley’s regimented world is
thrown into chaos when a spitfire dressmaker captures his soul. Will the Dom
convince vanilla to swirl?

Wounded
Hearts

Linda
LaRoque

Sarah
Lawson's fiancé Logan Miller died in Afghanistan. She receives a text from
Brandon Perdue, one of his war buddies, who wants to meet and deliver a message
from Logan. Physically and emotionally scarred, Brandon values Sarah's
friendship. Sarah wants their relationship to deepen, but he fears she's
projecting her feelings for Logan on to him.

Pale
With Color

Susan
JP Owens

Cheyenne
Clark doubts Captain Joseph Westerly’s beliefs about reincarnation, but a
twenty-first century gal stuck in1862, during the Battle of Gettysburg, creates
a new perception about philosophies and physics. After Joseph’s death, Cheyenne
returns to her time period and anticipates his rebirth. Will Joseph find her?

An excerpt from Wounded Hearts

Brandon
lay in bed reliving the gentle touch of Sarah's lips against his. The kiss was
such a surprise, and over before he realized her intentions. Could someone like
her really care for him? His heart pounded in his rib cage, and hurt and
longing clogged his throat. Tears pricked his eyes, and he closed them.

He
slept in the nude, so it wasn't hard for him to take inventory of the scars on
his body with his hands. He didn't need to see them. He knew them by heart, but
allowed his palm to roam over them for the millionth time. His torso was
puckered and lumpy from the burns. They traveled down his torso to just below
his navel. Fortunately the flames hadn't reached his genitals, and he was able
to function sexually. Not that he'd had an opportunity for a test run, but
seeing Sarah, being close to her, breathing in her special scent had made his
trousers uncomfortable on more than one occasion.

The
burns covered his shoulders, arms, and parts of his back. And then there was
his face. It had not been spared. His helmet had protected most of his head and
somehow his eyes hadn't been damaged. Considering how bad the damage could have
been, he was a lucky son-of-a-gun. But he wasn't what Sarah needed. She
deserved a man without scars, physical or emotional. She was projecting her
feelings for Logan onto him. That wouldn't do, for either of them. What if they
married and she decided later she couldn't live with his scars? He shuddered.
No, he'd never take that chance.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Bio for Linda LaRoque

Linda LaRoque is a Texas girl,
but the first time she got on a horse, it tossed her in the road dislocating
her right shoulder. Forty years passed before she got on another, but it was
older, slower, and she was wiser. Plus, her students looked on and it was
important to save face.

A retired teacher who loves
West Texas, its flora and fauna, and its people, Linda’s stories paint pictures
of life, love, and learning set against the raw landscape of ranches and rural
communities in Texas and the Midwest. She is a member of RWA, her local chapter
of HOTRWA, NTRWA and Texas Mountain Trail Writers.